Environmental groups will soon be canvassing six areas of Southwestern Pennsylvania by foot, car, and drone in an effort to find abandoned oil and gas wells.
Western Pennsylvania is the birthplace of the oil and gas industry, and companies drilled for nearly a century before they were required to report the locations of their wells.
The state has documented about 30,000 orphan or abandoned wells, but it’s estimated there could be between 300,000 and 700,000 others that are unknown to regulators, said Adam Peltz, a senior attorney at Environmental Defense Fund…